is conveyed to us in the songs of the early church with the direct simplicity of Greek drama. No one, listening to the mournful strains of the _Dies Iræ_, could escape the vague awe, the blood-congealing sense of that tremendous drama set for 'the day of wrath, that awful day when heaven and earth shall pass away’; nor could any one hear the serene melody of the _Veni sancte spiritus_ without feeling some suggestion of the ineffable peace that follows the descent of the Spirit Paraclete. Understanding and sympathy--difficult perhaps for a scientific and rationalistic age--are essential to the appreciation of these poets of the ecstatic vision; but for any one who can bring imagination and sensibility to the study of plain-song the results of the task will prove well worth the labor. W. D. D. FOOTNOTES: [43] 'Auctoritatem ... in Ecclesia cantandi causa devotionis traxit a canta religiosorum antiquorum tam in novo quam in vetere testamento.’--John de Muris, _Sum. Mas._ [44] Cf. Strabo, _De Bello Punico_, Livy, Bk. xxxix. [45] Fr. Aug. Gevaert: _La Mélopée antique dans le chant de l’église latine_. [46] See Bellermann and Vincent: _Anonymi scriptio de musica_, Berlin, 1841. [47] Book v, Chap. 4. [48] For a fuller discussion of Græco-Roman music see Fr. Aug. Gevaert, _La mélopée antique dans le chant de l’église latine_ (Ghent, 1895); Combarieu, _Histoire de la musique_, Vol. I, Chap. XIII (Paris, 1913); Charles Burney, 'History of Music,’ Vol. I. [49] _See_ Gevaert: _Op. cit._ [50] Hugo Riemann: _Handbuch der Musikgeschichte_, I². [51] For a detailed discussion of the metrical forms of ecclesiastical hymnody see Riemann: _Handbuch der Musikgeschichte_, I². [52] Prudentius was the author of two collections of hymns, the _Kathemerinon_ and the _Peristephanon_, which were first adopted by the Spanish church and later introduced to Rome. [53] _De init. cler._, in Migne, _Patr. Lat._, cvii, 362. [54] See Paul I; Cor. xiv. 7; John Apocal., v. 8, xiv. 2, xv. 2. [55] A typical example is the recurrence of the phrase 'Quoniam in æternum misericordia ejus’ in the 135th psalm.